German prosecutors probe far-right leader over election donations

Alice Weidel of the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AFD) addresses a news conference in Berlin, Germany August 21, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

In Summary

Alice Weidel’s local party in the southern city on the shores of a lake of the same name is suspected of receiving a total of $145,743.29 between July and September last year from a company based across the border in Switzerland.

German law prohibits parties from receiving donations from outside the European Union.

German prosecutors have opened an investigation into the co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany on suspicion of violating party donation rules, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in the city of Constance.

Alice Weidel’s local party in the southern city on the shores of a lake of the same name is suspected of receiving a total 145,000 Swiss francs ($145,743.29) between July and September last year from a company based across the border in Switzerland.

German law prohibits parties from receiving donations from outside the European Union, of which Switzerland is not a member state. The donations were made shortly before Germany’s national election last September, the spokesman said in a statement.

The development is a fresh setback for the anti-immigration AfD, which became Germany’s largest opposition party after last September’s national election but suffered lackluster results in two regional votes last month.

Given that Weidel is a lawmaker with impunity, prosecutors had to first notify her and the president of the Bundestag lower house before launching the investigation.

“The prosecutor’s office in Constance has extended the investigation based on the initial suspicion of the violation of party law to include Alice Weidel,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.